RLDS Dissidents Fail to Agree on Unity

A three-day conference of leaders of several small groups that have broken with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has ended without an agreement on a plan to unify.

About 200 people from 19 states, Canada and Australia attended the International Elders Conference, made up of leaders of groups opposed to recent decisions of the RLDS church, especially the ordination of women.

Although many participants said they favored unity, they could not agree on how to achieve it by the time the conference ended Wednesday. The dissidents are not scheduled to meet again until April, 1987.

The conference passed resolutions setting forth articles of faith and doctrine but rejected resolutions establishing a list of priesthood members who could work to set up a central record-keeping center to note baptisms, ordinations and marriages in the different factions.

The meeting of the splinter groups followed the World Conference of the RLDS church, which is held every two years in Independence. The church reaffirmed its commitment to women in the priesthood.